


do me a favour

by endearinglybedraggled



Category: Arctic Monkeys
Genre: Best Friends, Crushes, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, M/M, Sexual Tension, Teasing, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 15:45:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11256021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endearinglybedraggled/pseuds/endearinglybedraggled
Summary: Because Alex knew Matt better than anyone else in the world, he also knew how to wind Matt up better than anyone else. In fact, he seemed to enjoy seeing the usually happy-go-lucky drummer getting frustrated.Matt never used to mind it.or: Matt realises he might fancy Alex, just a little bit. The problem is, Alex realises it as well.





	1. Chapter 1

At first, Alex thought it was nothing. But the more it happened, the more sure he was. Matt liked him - and in a more-than-friends kind of way.

He knew that he was a nice looking lad, and he’d never had any difficulties with girls, but this was different.

Alex enjoyed seeing Matt get worked up and he had to admit, he liked having that power over someone. Especially over Matt, who was usually so laid back and unfazed by everything.

Alex liked being able to be the one person who could have that effect on him. (It helped how fucking hopeless, surprised and fuck it, _adorable_ Helders looked whenever Alex said something blatantly filthy.)

So, Alex had been maybe, (definitely), going out of his way to exaggerate the things he knew Matt _appreciated_ , and, yes, he often did it at the most inconvenient times - mostly, it had to be said, at gigs.

 

x

 

This was the thing: Matt wouldn’t say that he fancied guys generally. Most of the time, he _definitely_ wouldn’t say that he fancied Alex.

Alex was his best mate, of course, and Matt loved him more than pretty much anyone else he knew. They'd grown up together and been through everything together.

He didn’t want to shag Alex though. He wasn’t _in_ _love_ with Alex.

How could he be, when Alex had seen him grow up from a spotty little shit into the semi cool drummer in a semi popular rock band that he was now? When Matt had equally known him as a sarcastic little gobshite and now _definitely_ cool singer in the same semi popular rock band? They were only nineteen, true, but already they were playing gigs in decent venues and had a fair number of loyal fans, though that was beside the point.

The _point_ , Matt thought angrily, was that most of the time, _especially_ recently, Matt didn’t even like Alex.

_Most_ of the time, especially recently, he wanted to punch him in the face.

Because Alex knew Matt better than anyone else in the world, he also knew how to wind Matt up better than anyone else. In fact, he seemed to enjoy seeing the usually happy-go-lucky drummer getting frustrated.

Matt never used to mind it.

Al had always been a cheeky shit and loved getting a rise out of everyone. It was how he was, especially after a couple of cans, and Matt was more than used to it by now. Usually, it would be quite funny and it was especially satisfying when, after a bigger show, one of the wankers from school would show up and start heaping praise on them and talking like they were old friends, and slowly and so, _so_ subtly, Alex would just completely rip them to shreds before they’d even twigged that he was pissed off.

Matt’s problem with it had become a problem though, when Alex had noticed the way Matt looked at him sometimes on nights out, and the way that Matt would turn slightly red and choke a bit on whatever he was drinking when Alex would bring up anything vaguely sexual while their other mates just laughed or egged him on for more details.

Matt had become fully, painfully, aware that Al knew about his… _feelings..._ about him in certain situations. He'd also become aware of just how entertaining Alex seemed to find this new information.

Matt didn’t understand his newfound attraction, and he couldn’t pinpoint when it had started, (he didn’t know _why_ it had started, that was for sure), but here he was attracted to _Alex_ and very, very incapable of doing anything to disguise it. 


	2. Chapter 2

Al had been with him through every embarrassing moment he’d had.

He knew all about the times Matt’d had too much to drink, before he knew his limits properly, and especially the time he was sick all over Stephen Taylor’s dad’s sofa at his house party when they were 16. Al was the only one not to mercilessly take the piss out of him, but instead took him back to his house, so his own mum wouldn’t find out, and let him sleep in his bed while he took the sofa, even though he ended up being sick all over the duvet. Alex just put the bedding in the wash and told his mum Matt had a bug even though she clearly didn’t believe him and bollocked Alex anyway for being an irresponsible friend for letting Matt get into that state. Alex stuck with that line regardless when they got back to school and some of the other lads started on Matt about the events of the weekend, even though it was clearly untrue, and clearly unbelievable, and just ended up getting Alex dragged in to shit as well.

Alex had seen him break down when, during GCSEs it all got a bit too much at school, with the pressure and the exam stress and teachers on his back about his homework being shit, and he just ended up not being arsed about any of it; spending long, somewhat hazy weekends, smoking cheap weed in his room, eating cereal in bed and watching cartoons. Alex was the one who would come round to join him and end up ‘accidentally’ leaving textbooks and revision notes on Matt’s bed as a subtle hint to get back on track and as a helpful shortcut to the material that was never really spoken about.

Al was there for Matt when Sarah Baker had broken up with him in Year 9 and even though it wasn’t a proper relationship, they were 14 after all, it had felt real to him at the time and she really had been fit. It was mostly, Matt thinks looking back, the fact that she had been so brutal about the break up – declaring coldly and disdainfully that she, ‘just didn’t like him like that anymore’ and that ‘actually, James Gilbert was a lot fitter and he was in Year 11 so really, she didn’t know what Matt had to offer in comparison.’ That was when Alex had once again come to his aid, with his usual stoic support. He'd written a song about the whole situation in one of his notebooks and showed it slyly to Matt in one of their study periods so that Matt could enjoy Alex’s secret slagging off of both Sarah and James, and give rather vocal praise for certain lines, whilst well within earshot of her.

(He was also the one who stayed over at Matt’s house every night that week and watched shit films from the 70s with him to try and cheer him up and who hugged him on the sofa, under the big duvet they had dragged downstairs, while Matt sobbed not very gracefully and Alex dutifully pretended he didn’t.)

Alex was the one who taught him how to roll cigarettes after one of the older boys had shown him behind the bikesheds at school. The first thing Alex had done was find Matt after their last lessons and take him round to the same spot to show him proudly what he had learned and try to pass on his newfound wisdom. When he couldn’t, and Matt failed miserably for some time, and then it started pissing it down with rain, he was also the one to call him a stupid wanker and storm home. The next day though, he had come back with renewed patience and determination and they sat in Alex’s front room after school practicing together until Matt got the hang of it. Alex was the one to cheer triumphantly, laugh at his own goofiness and then put the telly on rather than smoke any of the cigs, now kept in a little plastic bag as trophies of their shared success.

And it wasn't all one way.

Matt had been there for Alex as well and had seen Alex through tumultuous relationships with his girlfriends, his tumultuous relationship his appearance and the other kids at school. He had seen the most embarrassing moments of Alex’s life too, and it wasn’t something that inspired much attraction.

Their shared history was so important to Matt. It was his longest friendship and easily his most cherished. Alex was unquestionably the best friend he'd ever had and he would never do anything to jeopardise it.

Sometimes though, when they’d been on tour for a while, as they had now, and they were spending every minute with each other on that tiny fucking bus, sometimes, Matt couldn’t help but start to notice just how fucking _pretty_ Al was and how he really, really wouldn’t mind having someone to help him, well, relieve the tension as it were.

He was nineteen for fuck’s sake. What did people expect?

It’s not like Alex was helping matters.

Alex played up to it around Matt in a way that couldn’t be accidental. Sometimes on stage he pulled these faces or made noises that were just so fucking sexual. There was no way he could be doing it accidentally. If it were anyone else it would be embarrassing. But Alex was so unashamed and so endlessly entertained by his own performance, that it was actually just really fucking convincing and rather, well, _effective._

Worse, he seemed to do everything he could to take it even further for Matt when he could see Matt getting flustered and uncomfortable.

It didn't stop at gigs. At the pub, he would tell the most ridiculous stories about what he'd been doing with girls, what his mates had done or wanted to do, or what one of the girls from the year below at school had text him telling him she  _wanted_ to do last night. 

It was as though, Matt thought, he was showing off about just how turned on he could make him, not to other people, but to Matt himself. Maybe it was a power thing, who fucking knows.

For all his teasing and flirting though, Alex never followed through with anything.

Instead, he would just smirk and walk off and then go and chat up some bird at the bar, all the while keeping his eyes locked on Matt, who he knew would be watching - part embarrassed, part frustrated and mostly just really, really turned on.

Bastard.

It was becoming increasingly difficult then, to hold onto the idea of their treasured friendship and childhood embarrassments, as Alex cracked out yet another sex based anecdote, wiggling his eyebrows to get a laugh out of the group, but then flicking his eyes ever so quickly, secretly, over to Matt, smile smaller, more private now, eyes slightly unfocused from beer but intent on assessing Matt's reaction.

He always looked so knowing, like everything Matt was thinking was written all over his face. It probably was. Matt had never been one for subtlety.

That was very much the cause of his current problem and wasn't helping him as he sat there, frustrated, confused and mostly just really turned on, looking down at the drink in front of him and carefully trying to avoid Alex's all too insightful gaze. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i've had this on my laptop in some form or another since about 2012. i think i finally like it enough to post it... it's my first ever longer fic so i'm very much excited/terrified. this 'chapter' is very much an intro. the next parts will be going back and setting up how we got to this point. this is currently a wip - i will be updating as regularly as i can.
> 
> hope you enjoy x


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